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Max Planck Forum Berlin

When Higgs meets Bose

Quest for and discovery of a new fundamental particle

January 29, 2013

The start-up of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European center for particle physics at Geneva, marked the beginning of the world’s largest project in fundamental science. In July 2012 scientists reached one of their major goals announcing the observation of a new and so far unobserved particle, with properties as predicted for the long-sought and elusive Higgs-Boson.

The start-up of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European centre for particle physics in Geneva, marked the beginning of the world’s largest project in fundamental science. In July 2012 scientists achieved one of their major goals, announcing that they had observed a new and so far unobserved particle, with properties as predicted for the long-sought and elusive Higgs boson. This legendary finding is the last building block in the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes the dynamics and interactions of the smallest, sub-atomic elementary particles in a consistent way. The significance of this sensational discovery is still echoing.

Siegfried Bethke, Germany’s scientific representative on the CERN Council, is participating in the international project. His lecture will provide an insight into the quantum world of the smallest constituents of matter, and the largest particle accelerator and particle detectors ever built. Which questions drive scientists to attempt such a large and multi-national endeavour? What are the consequences of the discovery, which is regarded as a milestone in the 100 year history of subatomic physics? In the 1920s the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose published his work on quantum mechanics. This awakened Albert Einstein's interest, providing the basis of Bose-Einstein statistics. Later, Paul Dirac named the class of particles that obey Bose-Einstein statistics bosons. Is the newly found particle indeed the long-sought after Higgs boson of the Standard Model? And is the Standard Model the ultimate theory describing the micro-world of elementary quanta?

The Max Planck Forum regularly discusses current political, economic and social issues against the background of findings and approaches of the cutting-edge research, which the Max Planck Society conducts at 80 institutes in Germany and four institutes abroad. Numerous research collaborations link the Max Planck Society with partners on all continents.

The Max Planck Forum as a guest in Berlin embassies focuses on these research collaborations and presents joint projects. India is one of the Max Planck Society’s most important research partners since 2004. The event will take place in collaboration with the Indian embassy and is part of the programme for the Days of India year. 60 years of German-Indian collaboration.